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HEARING 



BEFORE THE 



LIBRARY OF CONGF 



014 420 750 



h^ie. 



COMMITTEES ON AGEICULTUEE AND FORESTKY 
CONGEESS OF THE UNITED STATES 



SIXTY-SIXTH CONGRESS 

THIRD SESSION 



(»N 



H. R. 9521 

A BILL TO PREVENT HOARDING AND DETERIORATION OF, AND 

DECEPTION WITH RESPECT TO, COLD-STORAGE FOODS, TO 

REGULATE SHIPMENTS OF COLD-STORAGE FOODS 

IN INTERSTATE COMMERCE, AND FOR 

OTHER PURPOSES 



Printed for the use of the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry 




30188 



WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1021 






vc I *' 



SENATE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY. 
ASLE J. GRONNA, North Dakota, Chairman. 



CARROLL S. PAGE, Vermont. 

GEORGE W. NORRIS. Nebraska. 

WILLIAM S. KENYON, Iowa. 

JAMES W. WADSWORTH. .Tr., New York. 

JOSEPH I. FRANCE, Maryland. 

CHARLES L. MrNARY. Oregon. 

ARTHUR CAPPER, Kansas. 

HENRY W. KEYES, New Hampshire. 



THOMAS P. GORE, Oklahoma. 
ELLISON D. SMITH, South Carolina. 
HOKE SMITH, Georgia. 
JOSEPH E. RANSDELL, Louisiana. 
ED. S. JOHNSON, South Dakota. 
JOHN B. KENDRICK, Wyoming. 
PAT HARRISON, Mississippi. 



Joseph A. Herbert, Jr., Clerk. 



HOUSE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 
GILBERT N. HAUGEN, Iowa, Chairman. 



JAMES C. Mclaughlin, Michigan. 
SYDNEY ANDERSON. Minnesota. 
WILLIAM W. WILSON, Illinois. 
CHARLES B. WARD, New York. 
WILLIAM B. McKINLEY, Illinois. 
ELI.JAH C. HUTCHINSON, New Jersey. 
FRED S. PURNELL, Indiana. 
EDWARD VOIGT, Wisconsin. 
MELYIN O. MCLAUGHLIN, Nebraska. 
CARL W. RIDDICK, Montana. 
J. N. TINCHER, Kansas. 
WILLIS J. HULINGS, Pennsylvania. 
J. KUHIO KALANIANAOLE, HawaU. 



GORDON LEE, Georgia. 

EZEKIEL S. CANDLER, Mississippi. 

TFIOMAS L. RUBEY, Missouri. 

JAMES YOUNG, Texas. 

II. M. JACOWAY, Arkansas. 

JOHN v. LESHER, Pennsylvania. 

JOHN W. RAINEY, Illinois. 



FKOZEX EGGS, 



MONDAY, JANUARY 10, 1921. 

Congress of the United States, 
Joint Committees on Agriculture, 

Washington^ D. C. 

The joint committee met, pursuant to call, at 8 o'clock p. m. in 
room 326, Senate Office Building, Senator Asle J. Gronna presiding. 

Present: Senator Gronna (chairman) and Representatives Haugen 
and McLaughlin. 

Senator Gronna. A joint committee of the Committee on Agricul- 
ture and Forestry of the Senate and the Committee on Agriculture 
of the House have met this evening for the purpose of considering 
certain provisions of the so-called cold-storage bill. House bill No. 
9521. 

Congressman Porter requested that we hear certain gentlemen who 
are interested in the question of cold-storage eggs, or frozen eggs, and 
Congressman Haugen, chairman of the committee of the House, is 
reall}^ the man who has arranged, together with Mr. Porter, for this 
hearing. 

Of course, we were ver^^ glad to give you people an opportunity to 
be heard. I take it that it is sections 2 and 6 of the bill that you 
would like to discuss, is it not? 

Mr. Porter. That is it; yes, sir. 

Senator Gronna. Before we proceed, I will say I understand there 
are representatives here from the Agricultural Department. Am I 
right about that? 

Mr. Porter. Yes. 

Senator Gronna. Congressman Porter, since you have arranged 
this, we v\ ill be glad to turn the direction over to you. 

Mr. Porter. That is very kind of you. 

Senator Gronna. And we will ask you to call on these gentlemen 
whom you want heard ; unless the representatives of the department 
desire to make a brief statement first, before you proceed. 

Mr. Morrill. We are here merely to furnish any information that 
might be called for. Congressman Porter asked us to be present, and 
we have some information, if it is desired. 

Senator Gronna. Very well. Then, Mr. Porter, you may proceed 
and call upon some of these gentlemen. 

Mr. Porter. Section 2 of the bill H. E. 9521, subdivision (e), de- 
fines the term " article of food " as follows : 

(e) The term "article of food" means fresh meat, including all fresh edible 
'portions of food animals, fresh fish, fresh poultry, drawn or undrawn, fresh 
game, eggs in shell or frozen. 

The item of frozen eggs is the one in which the parties here are very 
deeplv interested. 

3 



4 • FROZEN EGGS. 

Section 6 prohibits the sale of any article which has been in colci '^ 
storage for over 12 months; and that date is fixed beginning at the 
time when the article is first frozen, whether it be in the United 
States or not, under the subdivision (c) of section 11, Avhich reads 
as follows : 

(c) That nothing in this act sliall be construed to exempt from compliance 
with all of the provisions hereof products which have been in sold storage or in a 
refrigerated vehicle or in any vehicle in the course of transportation into the 
United States or in cold storage or in storage prior thereto ; and any such period 
of cold storage or of ordinary storage or of refrigeration or of transportation in 
any refrigerated or other vessel shall be included in the period of storage set 
forth in the previous sections hereof ; and any importer of such articles' of food 
shall be required to certify to any such period of prior storage or refrigeration 
or shipment and to mark the articles of food or containers thereof accordingly 
as required by the previous sections hereof. 

Now, these frozen eggs are frozen in China, the headquarters of the 
industry being the towns of Hang-chow, Yang-chow, and Nanking 
and clearly under this bill the time begins to run from the date 
when they are first frozen. This construction is confirmed by the 
latter part of section 6, which says, '' after the expiration of 12 
months following the date when such article of food Avas first placed 
in cold storage." 

The facts in regard to frozen eggs are quite familiar, and I am 
going to take the liberty of calling four or five men who are in- 
terested in the business, because the men here to-night represent 
practically all of the baking interests of the country. These eggs 
are used solely by the bakers. There is no doubt about them being; 
healthful. There are representatives here from the department who 
will testify to that, and I shall not take up any more of your time, but 
will call three or four witnesses and put on the record the exact 
facts in regard to frozen eggs. I would like you to hear first from 
Mr. Horsfield, president of the John Layton Co. 

STATEMENT OF ME. H. I. HOESFIELI), OF 90 WEST STEEET, NEW 
YOEK CITY, PEESIDENT OF THE JOHN LAYTON CO. 

Senator Gronna. Will you kindly give the stenographer j^our 
name and your place of residence and your business ? 

Mr. Horsfield. Gentlemen, I am president of the John Laj^ton 
Co., who are the largest importers of frozen eggs into America. We 
pack our eggs in China, in Hankow and Nanking which are away 
up the Yangtse River. 

We commence to pack our eggs in the spring, in April and May, 
and in late March, and we get our season's quantity packed, and they 
remain there until August when we have sufficient water to bring 
our steamers up the river alongside of the cold storage, and take 
the eggs away from there and bring them by way of the Pacific and 
the Panama Canal direct to New York. 

These eggs arrive here by that means somewdiere about the middle 
of October, and if this bill goes through, as it appears to be in the 
bill now, it will mean that these eggs are 6 months old before they 
will get here, and by the end of March or April they will be 12 
months old and will be outlawed, which would prevent us from sell- 
ing any eggs after that time until the next October, and bakers 
would not be able to draAv upon us at all. 



FROZEN EGGS. 



Then it is impossible to hoard eggs of this nature for the reason 
'^that they are a purely seasonal product. They are packed in the 
spring, and the baker buys them in the spring, and after the spring 
has passed, after the 1st of June, you can not sell any frozen eggs 
for the reason that everybody has contracted for their supplies. In 
the autumn, if you have any eggs on hand that you want to sell, 
if you should try to hoard, you would not be alDle to dispose of 
them: you Avould have to keep them until the next spring; so you 
would have to keep them then 12 months and you would have paid 
charges of 6 cents a pound canning charges alone, to say nothing 
of your interest on your money and your insurance. 

Then, it is impossible to pack two seasons' supplies at once, be- 
cause when you come to the next season you practically have to 
shut down your plant for a year, so that hoarding of the frozen 
eggs is almost a commercial impossibility - 

Senator Gkonna. Is your business that of buying eggs and selling 
them again, or do you use them in your business? 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. No; we buy the eggs in the shell. and freeze them 
and sell them to the bakers. 

Senator Gronna. How long could these frozen eggs be kept before 
they would deteriorate? 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. The Department of Agriculture gives 24 months 
before there is anv change in them whatever, I believe. 

Mr. Porter. I will say that we have here Prof. Barnard to testify 
on that question. 

I wish you would describe a little more in detail, Mr. Tlorsheld, 
the process of packing and freezing these eggs. 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. They are all new-laid eggs, as near as ^Ye can get 
to them, and they are not supposed to be much over seven days old 
when we get them. 

They are broken out with every possible precaution, m a sanitary 
plant.' We have our own white supervision to attend to the breaking 
out. Then they are placed in cold storage at a very low temperature 
and frozen solid, and they are kept in cold storage until the refrig- 
erator steamers come along, and then they are carried on the re- 
frigerator steamer and carried across and sold direct to the bakers 
in this country in frozen form. 

Mr. Porter. Then thev are frozen from the time they enter the 
refrigerating plant in China until they get to the baker in this 

countrv? 

Mr. 'HoRSFiELD. Until they get to the baker's shop. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. They are frozen while on the 

steamers ? 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. Yes; we carry our steamers at between 12 and 

16° F. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. And ordinarily it takes about six 
months, you say, from the time you pack them until you get them 
here in this country? 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. From the time they are packed until we get them 
here. I do not mean six months in travel. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. I know; but from the time you 

pack them? • ^ i 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. Thev do not get here until October. 



6 FROZEN EGGS. ^^ 

V 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Why is it necessary to bny thesv 
eggs away over in China? 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. We can get a better e^g in China. In China we 
only pack an absohitely new-laid egg. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Would it not be possible to do 
that in this country? 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. It would be possible, but I do not think it would 
be profitable, because you can get more money for an egg in the shell 
than you can 

Senator Gronna. Then I understand the reason you are bujdng 
the eggs over there and freezing them and bringing them here is 
because you can buy them cheaper there, is it not? 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. We can buy cheaper and we can get a better 
product. 

Senator Gronna. How do the prices range and compare with 
prices in America when you l^uy these eggs — I mean in percentages? 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. I have not that information. I do not know 
what the difference is. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Why are the}^ a better product 
than you can get in this country ? 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. I was speaking of a frozen egg. The frozen egg 
in this country is made largely from cracked eggs. I will not say 
the majority, but a large quantitj^ of the frozen eggs here are made 
from leakers. These are new-lain eggs when we break them out. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Originally, though, they are no 
better than the frozen eggs in this country? 

Mr. HoRsriELD. Originally the eirgs there are no better than the 
fresh eggs in this country. 

Mr. McLaltghlin of Michigan. I did not get an understanding of 
just what you said. 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. Yes. 

Mr. Porter. The Chinese eggs, you could take them just as they 
come and break them, and there may be 2 per cent of them are 
leakers ? 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. But we do not put them in our pack. 

Mr. Porter. You do not put them in ? 

Mr. IIoRSFiELD. No, sir. 

Mr. Porter. But in this coi'mtrj^, as a conservation measure, the 
leakers are frozen? 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. And packed. That is my understanding. I do 
not pack eggs in this country. 

Mr. Porter. Another question. When do you make your contracts 
with bakers for the sale of these frozen eggs — in what period of the 
year ? 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. From earl}^ in the spring ; around March. 

Mr. Porter. Is that a contract for the year ? 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. That means that we agree to supply the baker 
with eggs up to the next spring. 

Mr. Porter. The next spring ? 

Mr. Horsfjeld. Yes; at a given price. , 

Mr. Porter. And at that time you would have enough frozen eggs 
on hand to complete that contract, in a large measure at least ? 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. Yes; in large measure. 



FROZEN EGGS. « 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. May I ask you Avhat is the rela- 

'tive price that you pay there as compared with the price you pay 

here, from first hands? t j j- 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. I have no knowledge of that, because i do not 
attend to the buying end of it. My end is the selling end of it. 1 do 
have o-entlemen here who can give you that information. 

Mr McLaughlin of Michigan. There is some information coming 
to us to the effect that the eggs from China are not as good as the 
effgs produced in this country, due to the kind of feed that the 
chickens in China are fed on. Have you any information about that i 

Mr HoRSFiELD. I have not. I have information that our goods are 
always passed by your Federal food authorities here before we are 
allowed to put them in consumption. Every ship that comes m is 
subiect to that examination. ^^ , , <. i i q 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. Under the pure-tood law i 

Mr. HoRsriELD. Yes, sir. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. When they reach this country and 
are subjected to inspection they are frozen? 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. They are frozen. 

Mr. McLaughlin of" Michigan. What does the inspector do by way 

of inspecting them ? . i i 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. He comes down to the cold-storage warehouse, and 
he takes a bitt— an auger, as a rule— and cuts out a section of the 
can and he drives right down into the core of that can with a steril- 
ized instrument and takes a sample right from the core of the can 
and places it in a sterilized container and takes it home and puts it 
through whatever analysis he thinks best, either bacterial or chem.ical 

analvsis. • i o 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. What is that i 

Mr HoRSFiELD. He examines it either from a bacterial count or 
from a chemical analysis. That is what we understand he does. 

Mr McLaughlin of IMichigan. When they are m a frozen state and 
a sample is taken from them in that way, can it be determined what 
condition the eggs were in at the time they were first frozen? 

Mr HORSFIELD. I think so. After they are thawed out, which does 
not take long when he gets them away from the cold storage they 
come back to the natural condition just the same as tliey were before 

they were frozen. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan, lour shipments reach here about 

the 1st of October ? 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. About ; yes, sir. . x xi ^- 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. You make your contracts the next 

spring ? 

Mr. HORSFIELD. Yes. • ^ r-n ^i 

Mr McLaughlin of Michigan. And you begin to hll those con- 
tracts bv taking from your supply that came over in October? 

Mr HORSFIELD. Yes: or if we have some on hanch the October 
before. And then we do not get every pound of stuff in one ship- 
ment, but our big 80 per cent shipment comes m October. 

Mr McLaughlin of Michigan. It begins to come then ^ 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. Yes; and then we might have small quantities sent 

by way of England. , , ^,,. 

^ Mr. McLaxShlin of Michigan. You say you have been filling your 
contracts partly with eggs that came the year before? 



8 FROZEN EGGS. \ 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. Some of them may have been. _ 

Mr. McLaughlin of Mir-higan. Is it your idea that this bill could 
be so framed as to ])ermit that ? 

Mr. HoRSFTELi). Well, there is a certain leeway that you have to 
give to the trade. Thev can not always tell when they will finish 
their contract. If we bring eggs here in October, we would expect 
to get rid of the entire shipment by early July. 

Mr. McLaughlin of :Michigan. The eggs that begin to arrive in 
Octol)er of 1919 were gathered beginning perhaps the latter part of 
March, you say, 1919? 

Mr. HoRSFiELi). Yes. 

Mr. ^McLaughlin of Michigan. And immediately frozen? 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. Yes. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Then, the latter part of March, 
1920, they would have been in cold storage, frozen, one year. 

iSIr. HoRSFiELD. One year. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Your idea is that perhaps it would 
be proper in this bill to exclude the time that they w^ere frozen before 
reaching this country? 

^Ir. HoRSFiELD. Well, I think the idea was to take the frozen eggs 
out of the bill. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Oh ! You mean altogether ? 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. Yes, altogether; as I understand. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. And then the eggs that you re- 
ceive in this country, beginning the 1st of October, 1918, could be 
delivered to vour trade in the spring of 1920 and in the summer of 

1920? * . * . . . 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. It would be a very foolish proposition to bring 
eggs here to hold them for two years. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. That would be permitted ; and you 
yourself said that you supplied your customers, a portion of them, 
with the eggs that you had carried over from the previous year. 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. I get eggs here this October. Well, they will last 
me until next July or August. By that time I am supposed to have 
them all out. But my new supplies will not come along until Octo- 
ber again. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Then there will be a couple of 
months, perhaps, when you will be out altogether? 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. Yes ; or I will have to gret some sornewhere else. I 
might be able to get some shipments from England. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Then China is not your only source 
of supply? 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. They will be Chinese eggs, from England. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. What is that? 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. The}^ would be Chinese eggs coming by way of 
England. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. The eggs that were frozen in China 
and went to England, before reaching this country, would be frozen 
how lone:? 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. Well, they might not be frozen as long as those 
that came direct. It all depends on the steamer accommodations that 
have happened to be available. But we send our stuff right direct to 
the Pacific coast. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. From China? 



FROZEN EGGS. 9 

Mr. HoESFiELD. From China. 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. Your idea is just to take the 
frozen eggs out of this bill and let it apply to the domestic eggs as 
well as to the imported eggs, on the ground that the chemical test 
under the pure-food law has shown that for 24 months an egg that has 
been continuously frozen, from its fresh state up to the time you are 
supposed to put it into consumption, is wholesome and is all right ? 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. Yes. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. You get your entire supply from 
from China or England? 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. From China or England. From China, in the first 
place. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. You buy no eggs in this country 
to freeze them ? 

Mr. HoRsriELD. I have bought eggs in this countr3^ years ago, when 
I have been short or caught; but that is not our business. For in- 
stance, you may happen to have some very serious delay. One of 
our steamers may break down and not get here, and rather than break 
faith with our trade I might go out and buy somethino^ to keep them 
going until our stuff got here. But that is not our business. 

Mr. McLaugpilin of Michigan. When eggs come from China to 
the Pacific coast, do they come direct to your place in New York, and 
are they distributed from there, or do you sometimes distribute them 
along at one place and another from San Francisco to New York? 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. We do both. Sometimes we brine: them right 
•across the continent, and sometimes we keep them in San Francisco 
or Seattle, and sometimes we bring them halfway and leave them 
halfway. 

]Mr. McJ^AUGHLiN of Michigan. I did not know that it was sug- 
gested that the frozen eggs were to be left out of the bill entirely. 
The suggestion has been made to me that it would be proper from 
your standpoint if the time of one year that is provided in the bill 
should begin at the time the eggs were received in this country. What 
do you say to that ? 

Mr. HoRSFiELi). AVell, that would be very difficult. It would be 
much better for us and also for the trade in general if the frozen eggs 
were taken right out of the bill. 

Mr. jMcLaughltn of Michigan. In generai, there are two purposes 
in the cold-storage law. One is that the ]:)roduct of one season can not 
be carried over to another season, and the other is that the products 
-deteriorate in storage. 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. Yes. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. If your idea was folloAved, you 
would do away altogether with the idea of preventing the product of 
one season being carried over to another season, as to frozen eggs? 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. To a certain extent. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. That is all. 

Mr. Haugen. The object of packing and freezing eggs in China is 
•on account of the quality of the egirs ? 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. The quality of the eggs. You get very much better 
-eggs. 

Mr. Haugen. There you buy the fresh eggs and pack them as fresh 
egfifs ? 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. Yes. 



10 FROZEN EGGS. ^^ 

Mr. Haugen. Over here you would have to buy older eggs in a sta^^ 
of deterioration ? 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. Yes. 

Mr. Haugen. And the price has something to do with it ? 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. Both ways. We can sell the Chinese egg to the 
baker here that is an absolutely new-laid egg, frozen. 

Mr. Haugen. It is as good an egg as that in this country? 

Mr. HoRSFiELD. Yes. 

Mr. Haugen. Is it so considered by the consumers or the bakers? 

Mr. IIoKSFiELD. Yes ; I think it is. 

Senator (tronna. Of course, you realize that this bill is in confer- 
ence, it having passed both Houses. Xow, I want to be very frank 
with you and say that the question of eliminating frozen eggs entirely 
from the bill is somiething that is hardly debatable ; I mean if this bill 
is going to become a law. I say that in order that you may take that 
viev\^ of it. 

Mr. Porter. Yes. I thought that we vcould take this and see if we 
could work out a measure that would relieve these men. Dr. Bar- 
nard, will you make a statement to the committee? 

STATEMESfT OF ME. H. E. BAENARD, BIEECTOR, AMERICAN IN- 
STITUTE OF BAKING, MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. 

Senator Gronna. Will you state your ])lace of residence and your 
business, Mr. Barnard? 

Mr. Barnard. H. E. Barnard. I am director of the American 
Institute of Baking at ]\Iinneapolis. 

For the past 15 years, up to this last fail, I was State food com- 
missioner for Indiana, and chemist to the State board of health. I 
have been interested in cold-storage legislation since during the 
time the first cold-storage law was passed in this country. That bill 
was drafted in our office and was enacted in Indiana in 1909. 

Senator Gronna. Whom do you represent now? 

Mr. Barnard. I now represent the American Institute of Baking, 
vfhich is a scientific institute founded and operated by the bakers 
of the country for the pur])ose of giving them answers to some of 
their scientific problems. 

I appear to tell you something of my experience in handling these 
broken out, frozen eggs, under the cold-storage law of the State in 
which I was working for 15 years. I have had occasion many times 
under that law to examine the cans of frozen eggs brought in there 
from China, and also those purchased in this country. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. W^hat kind of cans are they in? 

Mr. Barnard. They come in a tin can Avhich holds 40 or 50 pounds. 
It is a can. very much like a lard can. Our inspectors have taken 
those samples of eggs at the cold-storage warehouse, brought them 
to the laboratory, and then analyzed them, and the method of 
analysis which has been followed is the method which has been 
worked out in our laboratories and in the laboratories of the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture here in Washington. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. How are they sold, by the pound? 

Mr. Barnard. They are sold by the pound. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. So they are sold by weight? 



FROZEN EGGS. 11 

Mr. Barxard. Sold by weight. Because of our interest in the 
Quality of those eggs from the wholesomeness standpoint, ^\e have 
been 

Senator Gronxa. Could you tell us approximately what the prices 
have been, say for the last year or the last three or four years? 

Mr. Barnard. Xo ; I regret that I have no data on the prices. My 
interest has not been an economic one, but is simply concerned with 
the wholesomeness, because we w^anted to knoAv tliat our bakers 
were using only wholesome products. 

Senator Gronna. And that, of course, should enter into the ques 
tion of prices. 

Mr. Porter. We have Mr. Ward here, of the Ward Baking Co.^ 
who Avill give you information as to prices. 

Mr. Barnard. May I say that in our experience we have never 
found frozen eggs which in any waj- were unsuitable for use ? They 
were always a wholesome product. The bacterial count and the 
chemical analysis, as determined by methods which are entirely 
accurate and which are set out in this bulletin of the Department of 
Agriculture, have shown that the frozen eggs were a wholesome 
product. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. For how long? 

Mr. Barnard. In discussing the period in which the eggs would 
remain of good quality, scientists have finally reached a conclusion 
which they have set out here in a bulletin of the United States De- 
partment of Agriculture, to the effect that no change in composition 
occurs in frozen eggs up to 24 months. After 12 months the egg 
thickens slightly. 1 quote now from the bulletin of the department : 

^' Whites near the top of the can may become pink, due to the iron 
under the tin, but the egg is not injured as a food product thereby.'' 

But I may say. gentlemen, that the findings of the Department 
of Agriculture have been confirmed over and over again by our own 
investigations in our laboratory of the State Board of Health of 
Indiana. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. A change can first be detected at 
what stage — a year? 

Mr. Barnard. No change of composition occurs up to 21 months 
they say. Then that is slightly qualified by saying that after 12 
months the egg thickens slightly, but they say that the egg is not 
injured as a food product thereby. 

Mr. Porter. Then, in your opinion, these eggs are perfectly whole- 
some up to 24 months? 

Mr. Barnard. For 24 months ; yes, sir. 

Mr. Porter. And in that you are fortified by the Department of 
Agriculture of the United States? 

']Mr. Barnard. Yes, sir. There has been a great deal of work done 
on that subject by investigators of the State boards of health as well 
as by the Department of Agriculture. 

Mr. Porter. While you are here I wish you would tell the com- 
mittee of the system of inspection by the United States Government 
when these eggs arrive in the United States. 

Mr. Barnard. As you know, gentlemen, under the Federal food 
law, laboratories are' maintained at all the ports of entry of the 
country where all foodstuffs which are sampled by inspectors of the 
Department of Agriculture are brought for analysis before the goods 



V 

12 frozp:n eggs. . ~^^ 

^•\ 

are allowed to pass through the customs. All of the eggs as well ^^ 
all other foodstuffs which are brought into this country for consumy) 
tion are subject to inspection by the Government officials at the New 
York laboratory, the Baltimore laboratory, the New Orleans labor- 
atory, or wherever they come in. If the goods are found to be 
wholesome they are released and pass into the interstate commerce. 
As soon, then, as they reach the jurisdiction of the States, they then 
come under the control of the cold-storage laws and pure-food laws 
of the several States. Practically all of the larger States have both 
cold-storage laws and pure-food laws which are adequately enforced, 
so that these eggs not onl}^ have the examination which is made of 
them at the port of entry, but they are later subject to analysis, before 
consumption, in the several States, by the health authorities or by 
the pure-food authorities. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. What is the ordinary size of a 
shipment received from China of these eggs? 

Mr. Barnard. I have no information on that subject. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. They come in cans of a certain 
size, you say. You do not know how many cans there are, or any- 
thing about it? 

Mr. Barnard. No; I do not know; only I have seen them in the 
cold-storage warehouses, piled up in considerable quantities. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. When the officials of the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture at a port of entry make an inspection, such as 
you have spoken of, how many samples do they take ? 

Mr. Barnard. They take enough to satisfy themselves that the 
eggs are all wholesome, and that they all conform to requirements. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. How many cans do the}^ open? 

Mr. Barnard. That I can not say. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. More than one? 

Mr. Barnard. They take more than one. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. LIow many more ? 

Mr. Barnard. I do not know. My instructions to my inspectors 
were that they should open 1 can in 20, if there was a large number of 
cans. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Did you ever work at these ports 
of entry ? 

Mr. Barnard. No; I am speaking of my own State work; but I 
know that the Federal w^ork is done quite as well as we ever did it in 
the States, because of the fact that I think they probably have better 
inspectors. 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. You are not posted as to the 
method of procuring fresh eggs at the original port of shipment ? 

Mr. Barnard. In China? 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. Yes. 

Mr. Barnard. No, sir. 

Mr. Porter. We will show that by another man. 

Mr. Barnard. I am familiar with the methods employed in this 
country in breaking out and freezing eggs, because they have several 
very excellent plants in my own State. 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. So that before they go into the 
freezing process you can ascertain which are fresh and which are not 
before you freeze them? 



FROZEN EGGS, 13 

Mr. Barnard. Yes, sir.*" Modern methods of preparing those eggs 
'Jbr freezing have been worked out until they are very satisfactory, in- 
deed, from a sanitary standpoint. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. In how many States have you 
worked ? 

Mr. Barnard. I was State chemist of New Hampshire for 5 years 
and State chemist of Indiana for 15 years. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Have they cold storage laws in 
New Hampshire? 

Mr. Barnard. I do not know. I doubt it. They have in Indiana. 
They had the first cold storage law passed in this country. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Did it contain a provision in re- 
gard to frozen eggs? 

Mr. Barnard. No ; it applied to all foodstuffs other than fruits, and 
in that way frozen eggs were included in the provisions of the act. 

Mr. McLaugpilin of Michigan. There was a limit of time that 
frozen eggs could be kept? 

Mr. Barnard. Yes. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. What was that limit ? 

Mr. Barnard. It was nine months ; but there was a proviso that at 
the end of nine months the eggs should be inspected, and if they w^ere 
found to be wholesome they were then allowed another period. And 
that is the reason why I had occasion to examine so many samples 
of frozen eggs, because frequently the owners of the eggs at the end 
of the nine months' period called upon us to see whether the eggs 
were satisfactory. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. How long was that additional 
period ? 

Mr. Barnard. Until thej^ became unwholesome; and we never 
found any. They always passed into consumption before they ran 
over the age limit. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Did you find that in the course of 
business in Indiana it was necessary to extend the time ? 

Mr. Barnard. Yes. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. In the case of frozen eggs ? 

Mr. Barnard. Yes, sir ; that is one of the few items. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. And it would have been burden- 
some and expensive if you had not had that proviso ? 

Mr. Barnard. It would have meant the condemnation and de- 
struction of considerable quantities of a ])erfectl3^ wholesome food. 
About the only other items which called for reinspection were but- 
ter and cheese. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. But, generally speaking, all goods 
or products do deteriorate with time : is not that true ? 

Mr. Barnard. That is true ; but, of course, the temperature factor 
must be taken into consideration. Eggs which are solidly frozen 
remain in an edible condition much longer than when the temper- 
ature is above freezing. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Take those that are frozen. Does 
not a change take place after a time in all food products? 

Mr. Barnard. Yes; undoubtedly a change does take place, but we 
have never kept broken eggs out long enough to determine the time 
when they become unfit for food. 



14 FROZEN EGGS. \ 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. And, afe a general thing, it >" 
ahnost impossible to tell when the change begins ? ^ 

Mr. Barnard. No; I think not. There are certain chemical and 
bacterial methods which determine when the foods reach a condi- 
tion when they should not be used for food. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. My impression is that in nearly 
all foods there is some change that makes its appearance in time and 
that it is almost impossible to tell when the beginning of the deteri- 
oration takes place. 

Mr. Barnard. There is naturally a constant and steady change 
from the time an apple is picked or an ^g^g^ is laid — ^the change is 
slight and is not injurious. In the case of the apple it is the con- 
version of elements into some other form, and in the case of the ^gg^ 
it is ^ slow breaking down due to oxidation for the most part of the 
fat in the Qgg. The same change takes place that takes place in the 
ripening of butter, and that is not held to be at all injurious; and, in 
fact, in the case of cheese, the riper it gets the better we like it. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. The change in texture is notice- 
able after a time, too, in a great many foods. 

Mr. Barnard. That is true. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. And there is a marked change as 
to palatability. 

Mr. Barnard. I would not say that that is true in the case of a 
frozen Qgg. It is true in the case of eggs in the shell after a period 
of seven or eight months. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. And it is true as to a number of 
other articles of food. 

Mr. Barnard. There is a change in the palatability of meats which 
have been long frozen ; and fish becomes dry. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. It becomes unpalatable altogether. 

Mr. Barnard. They become dry and more or less tasteless, and, 
after a long period of time, they become what they call " tacky "— 
that is. not rancid but tTie oil in the fish changes somewhat. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. But even in that condition you 
would say that there is no change? 

Mr. Barnard. So far as wholesomeness is concerned, they are still 
wholesome. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Does that apply to canned fish as 
well? 

Mr. Barnard. I would hardly know how to answer that, because 
canned food — canned fish for many years is still wholesome. I hava 
eaten canned fish that was 10 or 12 years old. It was wholesome, 
but it was not as good as it was when it was fresh. It had lost its 
freshness during those 12 years. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Have you ever made any investi- 
gation as to the keeping of chickens in China ? 

Mr. Barnard. No; I know nothing about that. I have seen many 
Chinese eggs in the shell in this country, sold on our markets. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Do you find any difference in your 
analysis of Chinese frozen eggs and your analysis of frozen eggs in 
this country that were laid in this country ? 

Mr. Barnard. No ; I think not ; although the bacterial count is 
probably a little lower, on the whole, in the case of the Chinese eggs 
than it is in the case of eggs broken out in this country. 



FEOZEX EGGS. 15 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Because of the better quality of 
> ihe eggs in this country than of those in China ? 

Mr. Barnard. You see, in this country they can not afford to break 
out and freeze the best eggs. They are wanted for table use. So 
that the eggs which are broken out and stored are the salvaged eggs, 
the dirties and the checks and cracks, and the eggs which will not 
stand shipment from Kansas or the Central States to the eastern 
markets, but which it is possible to salvage by breaking them out, 
and so save an excellent food material. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Did you ever see them break them 
out in any large quantities ? 

Mr. Barnard. Yes, sir. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Did you ever see them throw out 
any? 

Mr. Barnard. Yes ; they throw out every egg that is not absolutely 
all right, because one egg will spoil the whole batch. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. There are a good many stories to 
the effect that they do not throw out any when they put them in bulk 
and freeze them. 

Mr. Barnard. That may have been true if they told those stories 
seven or eight years ago. It could hardly be true to-day. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. What has made the change? 

Mr. Bernard. The passage of adequate legislation. In the first 
instance, by the Federal courts when the Federal food law was 
passed; and, in the second instance, by the passage of the sanitary 
food laws of nearly every State. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. In case of an analysis of frozen 
eggs where there were some that were bad and should not have gone 
in, do you say that the chemists could always detect the presence of 
those bad eggs? 

Mr. Barnard. I do not know whether you could detect the pres- 
ence of one e^g that had been broken up and mixed with a thousand 
others. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. What proportion of bad eggs 
would have to be present in order to spoil the others ? 

Mr. Barnard. A very small quantity indeed. 

Mr. JNTcLaughlin of Michigan. How small ? 

Mr. Barnard. I would not want to say; but the bacterial count 
would run up. One of the egg tests easily understood is the am- 
monia content. Ammonia in a certain form is a component of all of 
our animal foods, and as food decomposes, in the case of eggs, the 
ammonia becomes strong. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. AVould the absence of ammonia in 
frozen eggs indicate their good condition ? 

Mr. Barnard. If the frozen eggs had not been made of good ma- 
terial, the ammonia content could easily be shown by chemical 
analysis, and that is one of the common tests and is set out very fully 
in this bulletin. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Would that be apparent soon 
after the freezing? 

Mr. Barnard. At any time — before they were frozen, or two years 
afterwards. 

Mr. Porter. One of these cans would contain perhaps 600 eggs, 
would it not — 50 pounds ? 



16 FEOZEN EGGS. 

Mr. Barnard. Yes ; at least that, I should say. is 

Mr. Porter. About 600? \ 

Mr. Barnard. Yes. 

Mr. Porter. And manufacturers Avould be very foolish to allow a 
lialf dozen bad eggs to be put into a can and spoil the Avhole can. 
A man could not do that and be a manufacturer yerj long. His 
business would not last. In other words, it is to his interest to keep- 
those bad eggs out of the can ? 

Mr. Barnard. Certainly. 

STATEMENT OF MR. HERBERT J. KEITH, PRESIDENT, H. J. KEITH 

CO., BOSTON, MASS. 

Mr. Porter. Kindly state your name, residence, and occupation. 

Mr. Keith. H. J. Keith, president of the H. J. Keith Co., of Bos- 
ton, a Massachusetts corporation, and president of the Amos Bird 
Co., a Connecticut corporation. 

The Keith Co. is a sales organization, incorporated for 20 years,, 
selling frozen eggs that are known as Keith's eggs. 

These eggs include perhaps a third of the eggs that are frozen in 
the United States. They are frozen at different places in the Middle 
West. 

They also include eggs frozen in China by the Amos Bird Co. at 
its plant in Shanghai and consigned for sale by the Amos Bird Co. 
to the Keith Co. in the States. 

Mr. Porter. Have you been in China recently ? 

Mr. Keith. In 1919. 

Mr. Porter. How long were you there ? 

Mr. Keith. About four weeks. 

Mr. Porter. Will jow describe to the committee the process of re- 
frigeration of eggs ? 

Mr. Keitpi. It is the same that we use in the States. We have a 
cold storage with refrigerating machinery and storage rooms main- 
tained at low temperatures, with storage for the shell eggs to cool 
them before they are broken — to precool them. 

Mr. Porter. How are they packed for shipment ? 

Mr. Keith. In cans. I have here the cover of a can. The same 
methods are used that we use in the States, and those methods have 
been worked out in conjunction with the United States Department 
of Agriculture. 

The eggs are broken by girls. They have cups on a tray, and have 
a knife, and they break the egg on that knife and then they drop the 
egg into the cup. They drop only two eggs into the cup and look at 
the eggs, and smell of them to see if there is any musty flavor, be- 
cause you have to be very careful that there is not any flavor of 
must in the eggs. So they are always looked at and smelled, and 
then if they pass both inspections, they are put into the can from 
the dipper, two eggs at a time into the can, and they pass several in- 
spections on the way to the freezer. They are inspected in the cans in 
which they are taken from the dipper, and tlien tliey are cliurned and 
inspected in the churn; so that they pass the inspection of several 
people before they finally are frozen. 

We consider that necessary, because it would be rather fatal if 
we got any musty eggs into the mixture. You can tell a bad egg 



ve 

»n- 



FROZEN EGGS. 17 

without any trouble, but a musty egg sometimes has only a very 
faint odor, and you have to be very expert to ahvays keep it out. 

Senator Gronna. xVt whose expense are the inspections made? 
Does your company make these inspections ? 

Mr. Keith. Yes ; our employees, but there is another inspection at 
the factory. 
^ I have here the cover of one of the cans of eggs frozen by us in 
China, and on this and every can that we import there is this cer- 
tificate : 

I certify that I hnvo regularly made a sanitary svii-vey of this plant, and ha 
medically examined your employees. Both the (piality of the e.s?gs and th.o cr 
ditions under wh.ich this product is packed are eminently satisfactory. 

S. H. Hansom, ^L I). 

Dr. Ransom is, as it happens, the United States port physician of 
Shanghai. 

Senator Groxna. That is really an American inspection? 

Mr. Keith. An American inspection; not official, because he can 
not give an official inspection, but as it happens he is United States 
port physician of the international settlement in Shanghai. 

Senator Gronna. Are any inspections made by the Government of 
China ? 

Mr. Keith. No. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. How do you oet vour ejycrs in 
C hma J 

Mr. Keith. Very much as we do in this country, by rail and boat. 
Shanghai is on the Hoangpoo River, emptying into the Yang-tse 
close by. Some of the eggs come by boat from the producing sec- 
tions and some come by rail. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. In what quantities do they come? 

Mr. Keith. They come every clay. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Large quantities every day? 

Mr, Keith. They come in baskets that look like bushel baskets in 
bulk, and with rice straw in the bottom. A basket is supposed to 
hold about 800 eggs, and in the spring of the year we break out 
about 1,000 baskets a day. They come in from day to day, and we 
cool them down and then break them out. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. From how large a territory in 
China do 3^011 get your eggs? 

Mr. Keith. From several hundred miles, perhaps up to 300 miles. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Have you any personal knowledge 
as to hovr the chickens are kept ? 

Mr. Keith. Yes. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. What is your experience in that 
regard ? 

Mr. Keith. China is a land of custom. The Chinese live in vil- 
lages with walls around them — some kind of a wall or compound. 
They have fields of crops around the villages. One of the unwritten 
laws of China is that each family shall keep only that number of 
hens that it can feed from its table scraps, so that those hens do not 
wander off into the neighbors' crops. I do not know how religiously 
they live up to that, but that is the standard, and the Chinese hen 
lives on the same food that the Chinaman does. It lives on table 
scraps. 

ROI88— 21 2 



18 FKOZEN EGGS. 

Mr. Porter. That is mainly rice, is it not ? , 

Mr. Keith. That is mainly rice ; and I will say that I have eaten 
the eggs over there, and I like them quite as wel^ as any eggs I have 
ever eaten anywhere. I think just as well of thern. 

Another thing I may say : I may be going a little aside from my 
topic, but it is a ph^^siological fact that the egg is produced from 
the blood of the hen. " The blood is pure, so that if the Qgg tastes good, 
it is all right. The hen, out of pure blood, secretes the egg, and puts 
the shell on it before she la^^s it. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Have j^ou made any investigation 
to learn how long the eggs are kept at the place where they are laid 
before they are started on their journey to your plant? 

Mr. Keith. In respect to that the conditions are as they are in the 
States. We do not have a known history of the eggs, but we do candle 
them. We do just the same over there that we do here. When we 
get eggs in Nebraska, Kansas, Illinois, or any place where they raise 
hens and sell eggs in this country, we can only judge of them by 
candling them ; and then, having passed the candling test they must 
pass the test in breaking them, both their appearance and the way 
they smell. And sometimes we take something like a milk taster and 
taste of them ; but there is no way of knowing the history of an egg 
either in this country or in China. The farmer may hold them. We 
can not tell, except to tell whether they are good when we get them. 

Senator S.mith of South Carolina. The only thing that concerns 
you is the condition in which they are Avhen you get them ? 

Mr. Keith. That is it, and we determine that in the same way that 
we do in this country, and the general ciualit}^ of the e(]:g is the same 
that it is here. The fresh Qgg is just as good as it is here, according 
to my own observation in eating them, and in breaking them out. 
I have been in the business 28 years. I am one of the pioneers in 
the business of freezing eggs. 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. You are in a position to tell 
us what is the differjence in the price, the general average price there 
and here. 

Mr. Keith. The Chinaman is paid in silver, and a little over a year 
ago, if you paid him the same amount of silver that you paid him five 
3^ears before that, you paid him three times as much in gold. Now, 
silver has gone down quite a bit, and the cost in China depends a 
whole lot upon the fluctuations of the silver market. But our cost is 
very largely the cost of manufacturing and shipping and paying the 
duty. According to the length of time we carry the eggs we have to 
add from 15 to 17 cents a pound to the cost of the raw material to get 
the eggs delivered in the States. That depends, of course, on whether 
we sell on the Pacific coast or on the eastern seaboard. I am figuring 
the eastern seaboard cost now, on the transportation. Our prices 
vary. A pound of eggs consists of about 11 American eggs, or about 
12 Chinese eggs, because the Chinese eggs average smaller than ours. 
Our cost in China has run from about 6 cents a pound up to about 25 
cents. We have had that variation in the cost of the raw material, 
which would mean that at the high point our eggs have cost us 40 
cents a pound. That is the highest cost we have ever had against 
Chinese eggs per pound frozen in Shanghai and brought over to the 
Atlantic seaboard — about 40 cents. 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. Delivered here ? 



FROZEN EGGS. 19 

Mr. Keith. Delivered here; but we have delivered them at less 
than that. I guess about 20 cents a pound is the least they have cost 
us delivered. Those that Ave have on hand in the States now have 
cost us about 35 cents. That is about the average cost at the present 
time. 

Senator Groxxa. On an average, how many eggs does it take to 
make a pound ? 

Mr. Keith. A dozen Chinese eggs or 11 American eggs. The 
Chinese eggs are smaller than the eggs run in the Middle West. 

There is one statement I should like to make 

Senator Groxxa. Before you go on to that, I will ask you this 
question : We are on a gold basis in this country. Xow, basing your 
figures upon gold, how do the prices in China compare with the prices 
in the United States? 

Mr. Keith. The prices I have given you, sir, are the prices reduced 
to gold. The figures I have given you are in gold, but the price of 
silver has hopped around to beat the band. I have given you gold 
prices. 

Mr. McLaughlix. Hoav soon after the eggs reach your establish- 
ments are they frozen? 

Mr. Keith. As soon as they are precooled. We might have a few 
days' supply on hand. Sometimes they come in faster than they do 
at other times and we can not always keep up with them as we could 
if they came regularly. Sometimes they come faster and sometimes 
slower. We might have a few rays' run of eggs on hand in the 
baskets waiting to be broken, but we intend to break them out within 
a week after we get them to the plant. We do not want to break them 
out until we have got them precooled. 

Mr. Porter. Do you keep them in the refrigerator during that 
time ? 

Mr. Keith. Yes: we want to cool them down before we break them. 

Mr. McLaughlix of Michigan. After they are broken, how soon 
are they frozen? 

Mr. Keith. They go to the freezer immediately, within an hour 
after they are broken, and more often Avithin half an hour. 

Mr. McLaughlix of Michigan. How long are they frozen in China 
before being shipped to the United States? 

Mr. Keith. When we begin to freeze in the spring Ave begin to 
ship, as soon as we have enough, if Ave can get vessels. We ship by 
the Jap Line boats, O. S. K., and we begin to ship as soon as we 
haA-e eggs enough in the spring. We haA^e to contract for our ship- 
ments usually so as to make them the year around, so as to secure 
the A^essels, and then we ship from time to time, and some of those 
eggs may have been in China six or eight months before we get them 
shipped out. Then they Avoiild be a month coming to Seattle. Then 
Ave put them in the cooler there, and get them doAvn to zero. Then 
we ship them maybe to Chicago and put them in the cooler and get 
them down to zero. Then we ship them on to New York. If it was 
cold weather we would ship them right straight through from 
Seattle to NeAV York. They might be about three Aveeks getting 
there, but on the whole it would be about tAvo months from the time 
we ship them in Shanghai until we get them delivered in New York. 

Mr. McLaughlix of Michigan. Is there any time during the ship- 
ment when thcA^ are not frozen hard? 



20 FROZEN EGGS. 

Mr. Keith. Xo. We depend on tlie insulation and the icing of 
the car partly, but aside from that we line the car with the insulated 
paper, and wrap the body of eggs right up in that insulated paper, 
and lap it over. Then we have the eggs at zero wdien w^e load them 
in the car, and we depend on the eggs keeping themselves cold while 
they are on the road, the same as ice keeps itself cold in an icehouse. 
The temperature comes up while they are running from Seattle to 
Chicago, but w^e land them in Chicago solidly frozen still. 

Senator (tronna. Have vou more than or.e packinir plant in 
China ?^ 

Mr. Keith. Only one. 

Senator Gronna. How do you get the eggs'^ Do you send your 
own agents out to buy them, or are they shipped direct to 3^our 
plant ? 

Mr. Keith. Sometimes we buy them from a Chinese hong, as it is 
called. That is sometimes called a guild. I think, a combination of 
Chinese egg dealers in the country. They agree to deliver us so 
many baskets a day over a given period. Sometimes we maintain 
branches and send out our own men and station them at places in 
the country, and we send up the orders to them, and they buy them 
and ship them in. We do both ways, because we want to keep check 
on the comparative results. 

Senator (tronna. You have had many years' experience. In 
your experience do you occasionally find a bad egg'^i 

Mr. Keith. Do you mean in the shell eggs? 

Senator Gronna. Yes. 

Mr. Keith. In the hot spell last August when we w^ere still freez- 
ing eggs we threw aAvay 70 out of every 100 that we paid for. 

Senator Gronna. I'hat Avas in China? 

Mr. Keith. That was in China. 

Mr. Porter. When Avas that ? 

Mr. Keith. Last Aiigust. They had w blazing hot summer, and 
those eggs Avere struck by tlie heat, and Ave thrcAV aAvay TO per cent 
of them that Ave had paid for. 

Senator Gronna. So you do have losses in China as Avell as you 
Avould lia\^e if you Avere to pack them in this country. 

Mr. Keith. Yes; and you haA^e got to maintain your standard 
there the same aa ay as you do here. 

There has been something said about leaky eggs. I Avill sj^eak of 
that. The Department of Agriculture approA^es of the salvaging 
and freezing of eggs that are leaking from the shell in the United 
States. We favor that in the States, but the Keith Co. does not put 
them in the same grade. We separate them and sell them for less 
money in the States. We maintain the same standards Avith respect 
to eggs frozen in the States that Ave do in China. We do not put 
any leakers into either of them. 

Senator Gronna. You pack and freeze eggs both in China and 
the United States ? 

Mr. Keith. Yes. 

Senator (tronna. In your long exi)erience freezin,<j: eg^s hoAV are 
the conditions in this country com])ared Avith conditions in China ? 
In Avhat condition do you find the eggs? 

Mr. Keith. AVe lose more eggs in China. We throAv aAvay more 
eggs in China in the course of a season than A\'e do herp — more than 



FEOZEis EGGS. 21 

f '' 

y^e used to here. Our best packino- point in the Ignited States, in 
iw\j judgment, is Topeka, Kans., and we liave had ahnost no rotten 
eggs there the hist year. A dozen years ago in hot weather we would 
have thrown aAvay most of them in Topeka, but the work that has 
been done in the United States within the past dozen years has 
brought up the qaulity of the eggs. The eggs are brought down to 
the phice wliere they are taken care of here in the States, particu- 
larly, I think I will say, in Kansas — Kansas shines in that respect 
at this present moment- they are got to the place where they come 
for refrigeration in a w^ay that is amazing, compared to the way 
they were a few years ago. 

Senator Gronna. How far south do you go in buying your eggs 
in this country? Do you go into the wamier climate? 

Mr. KioiTH. xVbout to the southern border of Kansas. 

Senator Gronna. You try. of course, to purchase your eggs as 
much as you possibly can in the Northern States, owing to climatic 
conditions, do you not ? 

]Mr. Keith, I like tliem better in Kansas. T beo;an breaking them 
in Minnesota. 1 may be hittino- the northwestern men, but I began 
breaking egg: in St. Paul and ?i'Iinneai>olis, and I found more musty 
eggs^and more eggs that were off flavor in one way and another than 
in Kansas. Of course, they have lots of wheat and corn in Kansas, 
but I do not know just \\\\y it is that we have less troul>le with musty 
eggs in Kansas than we do in Minnesota. I like the Iowa eggs, and 
T can get good eggs from different ]:>laces, but you have got to watch 
them. Anybody that is breaking eggs gets expert, the same as any- 
body testing anything else. They get critical along that line. The 
lon.o-er they work at it the more fussy they get, and the more they 
w^ill throw away. 

Senator (hi(;xxA. Is it not possible that that may be due to the 
regulations in the different States? 

Mr. Keith. It may be. 

Senator Gronxa. Kansas, as I understand, has rigid inspection and 
regulation. Whether Minnesota has that or not I do not know. 

Mr. Keith. You asked the question and I have answered it hon- 
estly. 

Senator Gronna. I might just as well be frank with you. I made 
the inquiry for the purpose of finding out from you as an experienced 
business man why is it not possible to use American eggs altogether. 

Mr. Keith. I will tell you why I went abroad. 

Senator Gronna. That is what I want to know. 

Mr. Keith. For two reasons. I started this egg- freezing business 
22 years ago to take care of the checked eggs, the eggs that have the 
shell broken but not broken through the membrane so they will leak, 
eggs that are just nicked. There were too many of them, and people 
would not buy them as shell eggs, and ship them around, because 
they get moldy and leaked out, and that made an awful mess, and 
sometimes people would not pay the freight when they were shipped 
from Iowa to New York. So I started freezing them to save these 
checked eggs. You get them for less money than you would if they 
are not checked, but they are just as good if you get them fresh 
enough. 

It began in that way. Then the business grew. Hardly any frozen 
eggs were sold when I began, but the business grew, and it outgrew 



22 FROZEN EGGS. 

the supply of what we call breaking stocks in this country, which 
consist of checked eggs and undersized eggs and odd sizes, eggs with 
the shells soiled and one thing and another, what we call breaking 
stock ; so we got to the point where we were breaking the current re- 
ceipts, the eggs just as they came from the farms. Sometimes we 
were compelled to send whole carloads to the refrigerator and break 
them out to keep up our trade supply. Now, inasmuch as we were 
raising the price of the breaking stock all the time, because there 
were not enough to go around, other people were getting into com- 
petition, and we could not sell our frozen eggs at a price that would 
be very interesting to the bakers if we did not watch out. 

Mr. Porter. The bakers alone use these frozen eggs, as I under- 
stand ? 

Mr. Keith. Practically thej^ are the only users. The ice cream 
people use some, and there are a few other users, perhaps, but it is 
altogether a factory consumption. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. The hotels use them some, do they 
not? 

Mr. Keith. Yes; but it is for commercial baking. It is in their 
own baking department. Wherever they do commercial baking they 
can use them. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Do not the hotels use that same 
kind of eggs for omelette ? 

Mr. Keith. A few of them do. They are coming to it this year 
more than ever before because shell eggs have been so high, and they 
use the dried eggs also for omelettes, but comparatively few use them. 
However, it can be done. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. I presume you remember when 
grasshopers were so numerous in Kansas and the chickens ate them^ 
and the eggs were not fit to eat ? 

Mr. Keith. I got out to Minnesota the year after the grasshoppers 
ate them out of house and home. The grasshopper plague was over 
when I got into Minnesota. I got there the year after the grass- 
hoppers. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. What was the effect on the eggs? 

Mr. Keith. I was not in the egg business at that time. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Do you know what the effect wag ? 

Mr. Keith. No ; I do not. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. You have heard that the eggs were 
not 2:ood, haven't you ? 

Mr. Keith. I did not happen ever to hear of that. I think a few 
grasshoppers might be all right, but an exclusive diet might not be. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Then, what the chickens eat does 
affect the quality of the eggs ? 

Mr. Keith. I think it affects the flavor somewhat. I know it affects 
the color of the yolk. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Is there any truth in the story that 
we hear about Chinese eggs, that the chickens over there are scaA^en- 



gers? 



Mr. Keith. Just the same as they are here. The hen will pick up 
anything she can get anywhere, I don't care where she lives. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. It is said more as to the hens in 
China than in this country, is it not, that they are scavengers? 



FROZEN EGGS. 23 

' Mr. Keith. I have heard more talk about it, but I lived on a farm 
when I was' a boy, and I do not see any difference. I know something 
about the habits of our hens that we had on the farm when I was 
a boy. 

Mr. Smith of South Carolina. They are not very choice in their 
diet ? 

Mr. Keith. No; but they produce a good egg, from pure blood, 
in China and in the States. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. I have thought that where there 
was so much smoke there must be a little fire, and I have understood 
it is generally said that the chickens in China are scavengers and 
that on account of the impure food the eggs were not of very good 
quality. 

Mr. Keith. They are good eggs, I will guarantee, because I have 
eaten them, and it is the judgment of every man that ever went over 
there that they are good eggs. We maintain a white staff in Shang- 
hai, quite a number of men from the States, and they agree that the 
eggs are tiptop. And with respect to the food, as I say, the Chinese 
hen lives on table scraps, and then if she can pick up a bug. or some- 
thing like that, she is just like the hen in the States. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. I suppose there is a laying season 
in China the same as there is in this country ? 

Mr. Keith. Yes. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. What is the laying season in 
China? ^ 

Mr. Keith. About the same as it would be in our Southwestern 
States. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. The hens begin to lay about the 
1st of April? 

Mr. Keith. In March. You do not get any eggs in China until 
after the Chinese New Year. The Chinese New^ Year is a movable 
feast, like Easter. They celebrate the New Year, and it starts the 
8th of February this j^ear. After they have celebrated their New 
Year then the}?^ sober up, about a week after that, and then they 
begin to think about getting some eggs to market. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Then the laying season continues 
about how long? 

Mr. Keith. The hens lay there the same as they do here. You 
will get some eggs in the fall and some eggs most any time, but the 
heavy lay is along during the spring months, the same as it is here. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. The heavy laying season stops 
about what time in China ? 

Mr. Keith. They begin to la^^ late in February or the 1st of March. 
Last year New Years came late, and it was along in March before 
we got many eggs. They did not get down to the bottom until 
around the 1st of April. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Then the laying stops about what 
time? 

Mr. Keith. The heavy lay is over some time in June. March, 
April, and May are the big months. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Then your large purchases would 
be during those months ? 

Mr. Keith. Yes. 



24 FROZEN EGGS. 

Mr. McLaughlix of Michigan. And then about what time do you 
ordinarily get them to this country ? ' ^ 

Mr. Keith. We ship them along from time to time. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. You said that they might be 
frozen there six or eight m.onths? 

Mr. Keith. They might be. So far we have been rather short of 
storage space. We are putting in more storage space, but we have 
been obliged to slii]) them out a little faster than we wanted to. The 
natural way would be to keep them coming right through the year, 
because our customers use them the year through. We would ship 
from month to month, and the last shipment of eggs we would make 
in 1920 would get here along about February of this year. That is, 
we would keep them rolling, so that we would always have eggs 
coming for our trade in the States all the time as they used them. 
That is the way Ave would naturally do. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michiiian. But it might be that before the 
eggs would reach you in the United States, in Boston, a year would 
have elapsed after they were purchased by you? 

Mr. Keith. Pretty close to that ; and there is another thing that 
I would like to state. That is particularly true of the separated 
whites and yolks. About 50 per cent of the business of the Keith Co. 
is not in the mixed eggs, but in the yolks and whites separated. 
We want to get tlie whites of the eggs at the time they are most firm, 
when they will be the best, and that is undoubtedly in April and 
Ma}-, and in April rather than May. So we would like to freeze as 
many of those separated eggs as we can early in the spring, and 
tliey are bound to lap over no matter when we freeze them, in the 
States or anywhere else. You can not get them cleaned up within 
the 12 months' limit. 

Mr. McLaltghlin of Michigan. Do you carry many over from 
one year to another? 

Mr. Keith. Beyond the 12 months' limit we do, but not 24 months. 
I do not think Ave have ever carried any after 24 months except one 
time Ave got into a scrap Avith Dr. Wiley; Ave had some tied up here, 
about 10 or 11 years ago, for about 3 years, and Ave tested them after 
Ave had licked him. We Avent to the United States Supreme Court 
and licked him out. That Avas on our second grade, and there Avas no 
change in the flavor of those eggs, or in the bacteriological test, or in 
tlie chemical analysis, or by the test of the senses by smelling. We 
had them tested by the State of Kansas Avhere they Avere packed. 
We had them tested by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 
We had them tested by the State of Ncav Jersey, and Ave had the 
records of the tests that Avere made two years and a half before, Avhen 
they Avere frozen, jind there Avas no change. 

Mr. Portee. Hoav does the price of frozen eggs compare with the 
price of shell eggs, taken as a general aA^erage ? 

Mr. Keith. In the spring of the year the frozen eggs are slightly 
higher than the shell eggs, because Ave have the expense of packing 
against them, but then the price does not change throughout the 
year, and the rest of the year they are cheaper than the shell egg. 
They are cheaper than the shell egg at the present time. At the 
present time the frozen egg sells at an aA^erage of perhaps eqiUA^alent 
to 40 cents a dozen ; that is, Avith us. 

Mr. Porter. What are shell eggs Avorth at the piesent time ? 



FROZEN EGGS. 25 

/ Mr. Keith. Kefrigerators are quoted at 61 cents, and then jon 
liave got to candle them. I guess they will be 70 or T5 cents by the 
time you get them retailed. 

Mr. Porter. What effect Avould the exclusion of the Chinese frozen 
eggs have upon the market price of the shell eggs to the consumer in 
the United States ? 

Mr. Keith. It would bring it up. 

Mr. Porter. Why? 

Mr. Keith. Because the trade that is now supplied partially from 
China would have to be supplied altogether from the production of 
the States, and in order to supply the frozen eggs you would either 
not be able to supply them at all or else you would have to break 
not only the class of eggs that are now broken in this country for 
freezing, but you w^ould also have to dip into the straight run of 
eggs as they come from the farmers, and even into the refrigerator 
firsts, and then I want to say that it would be wholly impossible for 
lis to turn our business around, on our domestic packing, within 
the 12 months' limit, except by doing tliis. We should have to in the 
12 months store some eggs in the shell, and break them out in the 
fall, or else we should have to go out and buy eggs in storage in the 
fall and then freeze them. The}^ would not be so good, and they would 
cost more. 

Mr. Porter. When do you make your contracts with the bakers? 

Mr. Keith. When we are packing. The Keith Co. is much slower 
in contracting than most people are, and we string our contracts 
out from about the 1st of May, usually, until some time in June, but 
w^e are later than anybody else in contracting. 

Mr. Porter. That contract is for the period of one year ? 

Mr. Keith. Yes. It terminates next spring. But the baker does 
not always get them used up. 

Mr. Porter. What effect will this 12 months' limitation have upon 
the shipment of frozen eggs from China, assuming that you fix the 
date as the date Avhen the egg is first frozen in your factory at 
Shanghai ? 

Mr. Keith. I will tell you what we do. I am going to be candid 
with you. We could not do business as we do it now. We could not 
freeze our eggs at the time when we ought to freeze them, when they 
are the best and the cheapest, but we would freeze some at that time 
and then we would freeze some more later, and they would cost 
more money and w^ould not be so good; but we should struggle 
along and do our best to keep w^ithin the 12 months' limit, and we 
w^ould have hard sledding and we would slip up, because the bakers 
do not know just how many eggs they are going to use. And, take 
note, they are not going to use up what they have bought for this 
year for another six months after their contracts expire, most of 
them, because the trade has slumped. 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. In case you were not very con- 
scientious about giving the exact date when you broke them out and 
froze them, would there be any way to detect whether or not they 
had been frozen longer than that, when they arrived in this country? 

Mr. Keith. Not by examining them. 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. . That is the point I make. 

Mr. Keith. Xo: not by examining them. 



26 FROZEN EGGS. 

There is another reason Avhy we can not keep within the 12-nionths 
limit on our domestic pack. We sold our whites and our yolks 
evenly. We sold the whites that were with the yolks that were sepa- 
rated, but the trade is using up the yolks first and is not using up 
the whites. The white part is selected out, and I think we are not 
going to be able to get out the whites that we packed for this year's 
trade much before pretty late in the fall. It is 1921 now and they 
were packed in 1920 with the anticipation that the whites would be 
gone next spring, and they will not be gone until next fall, and Ave 
could not do anything about it if we gave them aivay. 

Mr. Porter. That is the point I want to bring out. The demand 
is limited? 

Mr. Keith. Yes. 

Mr. Porter. I wish you would explain that to this commitee. 

Mr. Keith. Just a certain class of trade use these eggs. It is not like 
shell eggs. Suppose we have shell eggs in storage and they are not 
going out fast enough. We can put the price down so they will be 
more attractive as an article of food, so the housewife Avill buy them 
in the place of meat or fish or something, and they will be eaten up. 
But a frozen egg is not a food in itself. It is a manufacturer's raw 
material. It is an ingredient of food, and it has to be used in a fac- 
tory. Even if it is used in a hotel, it is used in a commercial way,, 
in the hotel bakery ; but the hotel use is almost negligible. 

We depend on the bakers almost exclusively for the use of the 
frozen eggs. The baker is finding at the present moment that he 
can not sell so many cakes as he did six or eight months ago. Peo- 
ple get out of employment, they get economical, and they conclude 
the}^ will not eat quite so much cake, and the baker can not get them 
to, and there is nobody except the baker to consume the frozen eggs. 
Now, when it comes along in the spring of the year, some of our 
bakers will have used up their eggs and others will not have used 
half of them. We have bakers that use our eggs exclusively that can 
not use up what they bought from us during 1920 before 1923. Now, 
wdiat are they going to do? We sell what they have got left to other 
people and keep them going, sell them to everybody that can use 
them at all, and get those old eggs used up and get everybody on the 
new eggs, and we will fix the price so as to make it equitable. 

Mr. Porter. Is it possible to hoard these frozen eggs to forestall 
the market? 

Mr. Keith. No; we can not forestall the market, because there is 
no market except in the contract season. We have the disposition 
to sell a lot of eggs that our customers have bought, that they can 
not use, in the desire to help them out, and we can not do it. 

Mr. Porter. What percentage of your frozen eggs are sold during 
the freezing season, from May to June ? 

Mr. Keith. Practically all within 10 per cent. 

Mr. Porter. And the only other customers you have are those 
who have not ordered enough? 

Mr. Keith. That is it. There is readjustment. A man might 
find his trade better than he thought it would be. 

Mr. Porter. Outside of that you have no market for frozen eggs? 

Mr. Keith. That is it. We can not force the market, and if we 
gave them away the baker would not use them. 



FROZEN EGGS. 27 

Mr. Porter. From the business standpoint would there ever be 
anything to gain by holding these eggs a year, or an additional year ? 

Mr. Keith. Not a thing. 

Mr. Porter. What eifect would that have on your factory ? 

Mr. Keith. If we held them over we would have to restrict our 
pack, according to the quantity we held over. We would pack less 
the next year. 

Mr. Porter. What does storage cost you a pound? Assuming 
that you held these eggs for a couple of years, what w^ould your 
storage be? 

Mr. Keith. I figure that we can hold them for a cent a pound a 
month, including insurance and interest. We figure that the}^ cost 
us six cents a year, if we hold them in storage, Avhere the insurance 
rate is low. 

Mr. Porter. If you held them for tAvo years you would have a 
storage and insurance expense of 12 cents a pound? 

Mr. Keith. Yes. 

Mr. Porter. That would hardh- pay. 

Mr. Keith. There would be no earthly object in doing it. The 
only wa}^ you can make any money in that business is to clean it up 
every year. 

Senator Smith, of South Carolina. I should like to ask you if 
you were restricted to the freezing of the domestic product, you 
could not sell as cheaply as you do? 

Mr. Keith. No. 

Senator Smith, of South Carolina. The primary purchase is so 
much cheaper abroad that it pays you to establish a plant there, to 
purchase the eggs and ship them to this country and resell them really 
lower than voii could purchase the primary stock here and freeze 
them? 

Mr. Keith. Yes ; except that if we do not break out anything ex- 
cept the checked eggs, why, Ave can give a competitive price against 
the Chinese ; but if we go beyond that, if we try to supply our trade 
from the domestic stock, we get the price up to where it would not 
be comfortable. 

Mr. Smith, of South Carolina. So that in China you get prime 
stock, if I ma}^ use that term, for freezing purposes. 

Mr. Keith. Yes. 

Senator Smith, of South Carolina. In this country you could not 
furnish the trade at the price you do and purchase prime stock 
here. 

Mr. Keith. I Avant to modify that statement a little. Some of 
these checked eggs, Avhen they are just freshly checked, are just as 
good as any to eat, but we can not break out the same kind of eggs 
here. We can not break out all of them. We do not intend that 
there shall be any difference in quality betAveen our No. 1 grade that 
we pack in the States, and our Chinese grade. We intend to main- 
tain the two. so that neither we nor anybody else will know any 
diiference, and by doing that Ave make a second grade in the States, 
and Ave do not make any second grade in China. 

Senator Smith, of South Carolina. That was not what I Avas at- 
tempting to get at. The point I was attempting to get at was that in 
China you have the pick of the eggs. 

Mr. Keith. Yes. 



28 mOZEN EGGS. 

Senator Smith, of South Carolina. You do not take the cracked 
eggs — those that will not stand shipment? 

Mr. Keith. No. 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. You take the prime eggs? 

Mr. Keith. That is it. 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. And in this country the prime 
eggs that will do for shipment, that you want for table use, would 
come at a price that Avould make it impossible for you to freeze them 
and put them on the market for anything like the price you do now. 

Mr. Keith. That is it. More than that, prime eggs in the Ignited 
States mean those of standard size, with a clean shell and all that 
sort of thing. 

Mr. Haucen. I understood the previous witness to say that the 
Chine:se egg was superior to ours. I understand you to say there is 
no difterence. 

Mr. Keith. Tliat is a matter of personal judgment. I have been 
there, and I was there during our heavy packing season from March 
until July, and I did not make any distinction of that kind. I did 
make the distinction that the Senator just asked me, but I did not 
make the other distinction. We get just as fresh eggs here in the 
States as we can in China. 

Mr. Haugen. What did you say the first cost was in China ? 

Mr. Keith. We figure by the pound in our business. The pound 
is our unit of raw material that is broken out from the shell, and 
the cost per pound has varied in our experience of five years all the 
way from about 6 cents a pound at the low point to about 25 cents a 
pound at the high point. The average during the year 1920 was be- 
tween IT and 18 cents; that is, during our last packing season. 

Mr. Haugen. What is the tariff on eggs now? 

Mr. Keith. It varies. On the separated whites it is a cent a 
pound. On the mixed eggs; that is, the whole of the egg mixed to- 
gether into a batter, it is 2 cents a pound, including the weight of 
the interior container, making perhaps 2| cents a pound. On the 
yolk it is 10 per cent ad valorem on Shanghai value, which works out 
this year higher than it has some other j^ears. This year it works 
out around 21 cents a pound on the yolks. Some years it has been 
cheaper than on the mixed eggs. The tariff is wholly inconsistent. 
I will not take the time of the committee, but I have my opinion 
about it. 

Mr. Haugex. Is that price in gold or silver? 

Mr. Keith. In gold. 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. Just one thing. Several ques- 
tions have been asked here about the quality of the Chinese egg as 
compj^red with the American egg. So far as the taste is concerned, 
for the purj3ose for which you use the broken egg that goes into the 
manufacturing process, it would not make any difference at all would 
it, as to the flavor, if the constituent elements of the egg were the 
same, there might be a difference without their being any real appre- 
ciable difference in chemical analysis. 

Mr. Keith. That might be; but just the same the taste of your 
cake, I think, depends upon the taste of the things you put into your 
cake, <^nd if you put mean-tasting stuff into your cake I don't be- 
lieve the cake would taste just right. 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. The point I Avas getting at was 
that there might be some slight difference in the flavor, but it would 



FROZEN EGGS. l9 

have nothing to do Avith the vahie of j^our eggs for the purpose for 
which you use them, even if there was a difference in the flavor. 

Mr. Keith. I do not know whether I have met your question, 
but as I conceive it, I believe that the taste of the eggs enters into 
the taste of the cake, so that if the e^ig tastes good it helps the cake 
to taste good, because there are quite a lot of eggs in the cake. 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. And your experience in China 
was that they tasted as good as they do here? 

Mr. Keith. Just as good. 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. That they taste just the same? 

Mr. Keith. Just as good. I ate them just as freeW and liked them 
just as well. 

STATEMENT OF MR. GEORGE S. WARD, PRESIDENT, WARD BAK- 
ING CO., NEW YORK CITY. 

Mr. Ward. Mr, Chairman, I am president of the Vrard Baking 
Co., of Xew York City. I am also here as chairman of tlie trade 
relations committee of the American Association of the Baking 
Industry and represent the Retail Bakers' Association of America, 
composed of about 28,()()0 bakers of this country, all told, who are 
keenly interested in this question of frozen eggs. 

The bakers of the country have been educated up to the use of 
frozen eggs, and they look with a great deal of concern upon what 
looks to them as a danger, if they are driven to use shell eggs instead 
of frozen eggs. 

There are many advantages in using frozen eggs as against shell 
eggs. First is the question of economy. If we are deprived of the 
use of frozen eggs, it means that we must go into the market and buy 
shell eggs and 1:>id against the household for eggs, Avhich would 
advance the price of eggs to the baker very materially. A cent a 
pound would mean a cent a dozen, and that would have to be carried 
through into the manufactured product, a cake which is sold through-' 
out the country, and passed over to the consumer, increasing the 
cost of the cake to the consumer. We can avoid that if Ave can keep 
on using frozen eggs. 

The other main point is that in the crackinir of shell e<i:<^s in the 
bakery, it is a very dangerous piece of work. For illustration, if vre 
should crack a musty e^x^ in this room, we could not crack another 
egg for quite a long time without suspecting that it also was musty: 
and one musty efx^r, cracked in a bake shop in the day's work puts 
under suspicion every piece of goods made in that bakery that day, 
and will spoil as many other goods and as much other <^-ood material 
as you may happen to have in that ])articular batch which the musty 
egg will creep into. That egg Avill look good, and it is very hard 
to detect. 

So I have come here not only in the interest of our own company, 
who are large users of frozen eggs, using this year somewhere be- 
tween 8,000,000 and 10,000,000 pounds— 9,000,000 pounds of eggs as 
a matter of fact. 

We ask that we be given one of two remedies: Either that the 
frozen-egg matter be stricken from this bill or that the time be lim- 
ited to correspond to the recommendation of the Department of 
Agriculture, Bureau of Chemistry, permitting eggs to be used for the 
full period of 24 months, 



30 FKOZEN EGGS. 

\ 

Mr. Porter. To what extent would it increase the price of eggs 
to the household in case the bakers had to go into the shell egg 
market ? 

Mr.. Ward. At the present time the difference would be between 
30 and 35 cents a pound for frozen eggs, as against (>T cents a pound 
for shell eggs. If we were not permitted at this moment to manu- 
facture our goods from frozen eggs and had to go into the market 
and bu3^ shell eggs and pay 67 cents for what we are now paying 
35 cents for, it would make that much difference in the price of our 
goods; and that would be for a short period of time only, because, 
by going into the market, we Yv'ould decrease the supply of shell 
eggs for general use. 

Mr. Porter. Is there any advantage in the use of frozen eggs? 

Mr. Ward. They are more uniform and safer to use 

Mr. Porter. Assuming that you had to go into the market in the 
winter when shell eggs were quite scarce, what effect would it have 
on the egg market? 

Mr. Ward. If the bakers went into the market in the wintertime, 
when shell eggs were scarce, it would advance the cost of living veiy 
considerably. 

Mr. Porter. Wliat percentage of the eggs would they use? 

Mr. Ward. I could not tell that. We Avould have to decide on 
that after we got the eggs into the bakery, and find out what of them 
were fit to use. 

Mr, Porter. How long have you been using frozen eggs in your 
business ? 

Mr. Ward. I should think about 12 or 15 years past. 

Mr. Porter. How many factories have you? 

Mr. Ward. Sixteen. 

Mr. Porter. Located in various cities of the United States? 

Mr. Ward. Yes; Boston and New York and all the main cities 
a«s far west as Chicago. 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. When frozen eggs have come 
into your factory in the cans, in the course of using them have you 
ever found any unfit for use? 

Mr. Ward. No ; I may say that on the whole the frozen egg is one 
of the most satisfactory things that comes into the bakery for use. 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. You never have found any unfit 
for use? 

Mr. Ward. AVhen they are cracked out of the shell they are frozen 
solid and' kept in that shape, and when they come into our bakery 
they are still in a hard, frozen state, just like a solid piece of ice, and 
we take those cans out of the cold-storage house, where they are kept 
in very low temperatures, kept frozen, and put them into reducing 
rooms in our bakery, where the egg is reduced down to the natural 
consistency of the natural egg. 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. What is your experience in the 
use of them ? 

Mr. Ward. The frozen egg is a very satisfactory product to use 
in the bakery. It is sweet, clean, Avholesome in every respect, and 
far safer to use than shell eggs for the bakeshop. These eggs are 
used far and wide throughout the whole baking industry, through- 
out the whole country, in all sections of the country. 



FROZEN EGGS. 31 

Mr. Halgex. I believe you said you had three suggestions to 
•offer. 

Mr. Wakd. Two; that is, either that the frozen eggs be taken out 
of the bill, or that we be given the benefit of the full time of 24 
months, as indorsed by our Agricultural Department. If there is 
any danger at all in the egg being unwholesome, we want to limit it 
right on that, as bakers. We are interested in having perfect eggs, 
from the baker's standpoint, from a little different angle that per- 
haps the country baker it. 

Mr. PoKTEE. What would be the effect on your business if you 
got hold of bad eggs? 

Mr. Ward. It would be disastrous. If we got hold of bad eggs, 
it would mean a bad product. They say the proof of the pudding is 
in the eating. The people eat our goods, and if the goods are not 
right they will not eat them. 

Mr. Porter. So it is a matter of vital importance to have good 
€ggs? 

Mr. Ward. Absolutely. It is the life of our business. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Do you mean that an egg with any 
taint whatever is noticeable in the product? 

Mr. Ward. A musty egg; yes. A musty egg will spoil the whole 
batch. It will spoil 100 or 200 eggs in the batch, and spoil your 
butter and sugar and flour and everything else in the mixture. You 
spoil the entire batch of cake if you use a musty egg. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Would it not have to be pretty 
advanced in order to do that? 

Mr. Ward. No; a musty egg is quite different from a rotten or 
otherwise bad egg. A musty egg will come out of a bad nest. That 
makes the bad, musty egg, as I understand it. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. An egg may be musty and still 
not rotten? 

Mr. Ward. An egg may be musty and yet be perfectly clear and 
good looking. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. And not show anything wrong in 
the candling? 

Mr. Ward. No; not at all. You might have tw^o eggs in your 
hand and not know which one of them was musty. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Or anything in the chemical 
analysis ? 

Mr. Ward. I never heard of any chemical analysis that avouIcI 
reach a musty egg. There is no way of discovering it except by 
opening it, and when it is once opened in a room it puts every egg 
in sight under suspicion, and it is really a dangerous thing per se, 
while in the cracking process, in the cracking of the egg before it is 
frozen, if they find a musty egg they sterilize everything by live 
steam, which kills that danger. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Then an egg that is comparatively 
new and fresh may be musty ? 

Mr. Ward. Yes.^ 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Then some of these eggs that the 
gentleman spoke of in China, coming directly from the places where 
they were laid, may be musty? 

Mr. Ward. Yes ; they may be musty. 

Mr. McLaughlin of 'Michigan. Do you think the process of break- 
ing two eggs into a cup would disclose the fact that they are musty ? 



32 FROZEN EGGS. 

Mr. Ward. Yes; those cups are all metal cups. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. And then that musty egg being 
broken there, do you say that the odor would be diffused, so that it 
would be hard to detect the egg? 

Mr. Ward. You would have to sterilize everything that had been 
used in handling the eggs, and ventilate the room, and get that odor 
away. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. It has been said that if a musty 
e^g were broken in tliis room many might be broken after that and 
we would not be able to distinguish whether or not they were musty. 

Mr. Ward. That is true. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Do you think the process they ga 
through in breaking those eggs in China would detect that? 

Mr. Ward. Whether it is in China or in the United States, it is 
the same. 

Mr. McLaugiii>in of Michigan. And then if they come across 
musjty, what then? 

Mr. Ward. No ; they sterilize their tools. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. But the odor is in the room., 

Mr. Ward. They have got to ventilate that out. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Do they do that? 

Mr. Ward. I should imagine they would, because it would be dan- 
gerous to proceed without it. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Have you been in China? 

Mr. Ward. Never. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Am I right in saying that Chinese 
egor^ have a bad reputation? 

Mr. AVard. I think back in the minds of most men, w^hen they 
refer to fancy eggs, Chinese eggs that are certified 40 years old and 
upward, there is a kind of nastiness about that in the mind of the 
average American. In the case we are talking about here you do 
not have that at all. I remember having a very interesting experi- 
ence in 1912. I went down through South America and passed 
through the Straits of Magellan and went on board a ship bound 
for Nev\^ York with a cargo of eggs. By the time we got down there 
the eggs for our table were pretty bad. We got to a little southern 
town down there in the Straits of Magellan, and I happened to see 
a sign, " Fresh-laid eggs." I went in and bought some, and found 
the eggs were fresh and good, and I made the discovery that a fresh- 
laid hen's egg w^as pretty much the same, whether down in the 
Straits of Magellan or up in New York City. 

Mr. Porter. I think the stories we have heard about Chinese eggs 
arise from the fact that in China an ancient egg is considered quite 
a delicacy among the Chinese people. 

Mr. Ward. Yes ; and I think that is what has hurt the idea of im- 
porting eggs from China. 

Mr. Porter. They are kept there 10, 20, 30, or 40 years. 

Mr. Ward. Yes; but we have no such eggs in mind w^hen we are 
talking about eggs in the baking industry. 

Mr. Porter. I have eaten some that were guaranteed to be 50 
years old, and I found them quite tasteless. 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. Had they been frozen? 

Mr. Porter. No. 

Senator Gronna. With reference to that, let me give you my 
experience with eggs. I took a dozen eggs five years ago ancl placed 



FROZEN EGGS. 33 

iibem in a certain dry place, and nailed up the boards, so that no one 
could get to them or disturb them. This fall I took those boards 
down and there Avas not a thing- left of those eggs except the shells^ 
and the linings inside of the shell. They had just walked away.. 
That is one test. You can not keep an egg for five 3^ears. It Aviil 
just walk away from you. 

Mr. Porter. I think the Chinese put some preparation on the out- 
side of the egg. 

Senator Gronna. You can not keep an egg without preparation 
for probabl}^ more than three years. I am just a farmer, and not a 
scientist, but I have made the test. 

Mr. Keith. May I answer that question? 

Senator Gronna. Yes ; we would be very glad to have you tell us 
something about that. 

Mr. Keith. The Chinese coat those eggs with salt and ashes, and 
one thing and another, so that they are pretty nearly double the 
natural size. They keep them in that way for years and years. 

Mr. Haugen. They are hermetically sealed? 

Mr. Keith. Yes. 

STATEMENT OF DE. I. C. FEANKLIN, SPECIALIST ON STORAGE, 
BUEEAU OF MAEKETS, AGRICULTUEE DEPAETMENT. 

Mr. Porter. Dr. Franklin, please state your official position. 

Dr. Franklin. I am specialist on storage in the Bureau of 
Markets, United States Department of Agriculture. 

Mr. Porter. How long have you held that position? 

Dr. Franklin. About four years. 

Mr. Porter. You have heard the testimony here this evening. 
Can you throw an}^ additional light upon this matter? 

Dr. Franklin. I might speak of the volume of the business. 

Mr. Porter. Yes ; w^e would like to have that. 

Dr. Franklin. And with reference to that, I have made some 
charts showing the cold-storage stocks. On this chart the vertical 
lines divide the years. You will see marked at the bottom 1917, 
1918, 1919, and 1920. 

The horizontal lines segregate the sections into millions of pounds, 
starting at zero, 5,000,000, 10,000,000, 15,000,000, and 20,000,000. 

Our first record of stocks was taken January 1, 1917, as noted 
on the chart. 

Taking the chart in general you will see an average upward trend 
of the amounts. The last point on the chart under the year 1920 
is for December 1 of that year and shows the maximum of stocks 
on hand at that time of 29.824,000 pounds. 

Senator Gronna. That is more frozen eggs than we have had at 
any one time in the years 1917, 1918, or 1919. 

Dr. Franklin. Yes. 

Mr. Porter. Now as to the Avholesomeness of the eggs? 

Dr. Franklin. Before we come to that I have another chart which 
shows the volume of imports of frozen and dried effgs. 

This chart shows, by years, 1917, 1918, 1919, and 1920, divided by 
the vertical lines, arid the horizontal lines startins: with zero and 
making upward, 5,000,000 and 10,000,000. 

30188—21 3 



34 FROZEN EGGS. 

In looking at this chart please disregard the solid lines as drawj;„. 
in there and take into consideration only the broken line, which is tht 
line of imports by months during those years. 

In an examination of that please note that in 1917 the average of 
imports moves along rather on a level, declining somewhat in 1918 to 
September 1, when it drops to zero, and September, October, Novem- 
ber, and December continues at zero, and on January 1, 1919, in- 
creases again. There was some difficulty in shipping that occasioned 
that drop to zero, so that those who were packing found it impossible 
to import into this country. 

Now, going on over into 1919, we find a rather even trend until 
along in the fall, where you will find a mountain peak, and that is 
occasioned by one cargo coming in amounting to 8,835,000 pounds. 

Again, in October this year, about 10.000,000 pounds in one cargo. 

Now, going back to that cold-storage stock report, you will see the 
reflex of those heavy imports in this jump here and in this jump here. 

Mr. Porter. Before you leave that subject, the slump in the market 
has resulted in the overstocking of the dealers in frozen eggs, just 
like in every other business, has it not? 

Dr. Franklin. I think that is true, but I want to go further on 
before I take that up. 

For the year 1916 the imports of frozen eggs totaled 8,126,583 
pounds. 

For 1917 the total was 12,085,094 pounds. 

For 1918 it was 4,191,791 pounds. 

In 1919 it was 14,415,805 pounds. 

In 1920 this last year up to December 1 — this is a conservative 
figure which is under the mark; I do not know just what the mark 
is — approximately 27,088,279 pounds. 

Those imports bear out this upward trend of cold-storage stocks. 

Mr. Haugen. An increase of about 100 per cent last year? 

Dr. Franklin. It increased almost that. 

Now, about three months ago I tried to secure figures as to the 
domestic production of frozen eggs, and I had reports sent in from 
the some fifty concerns who are in the business in this country. 

The amount that was broken out in 1919 of the domestic pack was 
approximately 15,000,000 pounds. 

In 1920, up until December 1, it was about 16,000,000 pounds. 

I w^ant to show 3?^ou the processes I went through to secure the con- 
sumption. I will give you the formula. 

I took the stock at the beginning of the year. To that I added the 
imports and the domestic production and subtracted the stock on 
hand at the end of the year — the first of the next year. Now, that 
should give us with relative accuracy the consumption in the country, 
barring one figure, and that is the export. But fortunately in this 
case the export does not run over 100,000 pounds, so that it is neg- 
ligible. 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. Is that true of a period of 
years ? 

Dr. Franklin. Yes, it is: so that that figure is practically negligi- 
ble. 

So that taking that as a basis, and the 15,000,000 domestic produc- 
tion for 1919, the domestic consumption is approximately 19,500,000 
pounds, but in 1920 the domestic consumption was 32,000,000 pounds. 



. FROZEN EGGS. * 35 



/Now going back to 1917- 



Senator Smith of South Carolina. One minute. You say in 1919 
the domestic consumption was 15,000,000 pounds? 

Dr. Franklin. The production. 

Mr. Haugen. Of frozen eggs? 

Di-. Franklin. Yes; but the consumption in 1919 was 19,500,000 
pounds of frozen eggs. 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. And in 1920 how much? 

Dr. Franklin. Thirtj^-two million pounds. 

Mr. Haugen. We imported 28,000,000. 

Dr. Franklin. We imported 27,000,000 pounds. 

Senator Gronna. And we froze 16.000,000 pounds in this country, 
which would be a stock of about 45,000,000 pounds. Is that correct? 

Dr. Franklin. Yes. The stock was 29,000,000 on December 1. 
AYe had a stock of frozen eggs on December 1 of 29,824,000 pounds 
or about 30,824,000 pounds. 

The interesting feature that might be brought out there is that 
the stock on December 1 represents practically a year's supply; that 
is on the basis of the consumption of 32,000,000 pounds for 1920, 
which may not be maintained. 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. You have on hand now, begin- 
ning with the calendar year, a year's supply on hand. 

Dr. Franklin. Yes; about 30,000,000 pounds, with a consumption 
in 1920 of 32,000,000 pounds. 

Mr. Porter. You do not expect the consumption in 1921 to be 
nearly so great as in 1920, do 3^011? 

Dr. Franklin. I am not a prophet. 

Mr. Porter. As a matter of fact frozen eggs are used in articles 
of food that are more or less luxuries, cakes and ice cream, etc.? 
During 1920 people had lots of money and ate lots of cakes and lots 
of ice cream, and the industrial situation in Pittsburg indicates that 
they are not going to eat very much cake in the coming year. 

Dr. Franklin. Of course you have a right to your opinion, and 
your opinion might be justified by the argTiment you present now, 
but I would not form a judgment on a matter of that kind at all. I 
deal with facts rather than opinions. 

Senator Smi,th of South Carolina. The point you are making is 
that we are beginning the consumption year with an amount in stor- 
age almost equal to the previous year's consumption, and that if this 
bill is unchanged and the volume of importation and domestic pro- 
duction of these frozen eggs continues in anything like that volume 
during this year, somebody Avill have a surplus on the market, and 
will have to dump some. That is the point 3^011 are getting at, is it 
not? ,' 

Dr. Franklin. I am just stating the facts. Senator, leaving the 
matter entirely to your own conclusions. I think that is probably 
the better j^lan. 

Mr. Haugen. We haA^e on hand an amount of stock equal to the 
last A^ear's consumption? 

Dr. Franklin. Practically so, and A-eiy much greater than Avas 
the consumption in 1919. The consumption in 1919 Avas only 19.500,- 
000 pounds. 

Senator Gronna. Do you care to make any comment as to how 
much time should be giA^en to these people? 



36 ♦ FKOZEN EGGS. 

Dr. Franklin. I do not think I would at this time. , 

Senator Gronna. If I may be pardoned for saying it, this bill has 
for its primary object two things in view. That is my understand- 
ing of it. We want to prevent hoarding of the necessary food articles. 
That is the first object. Secondly, we want to preserve the health 
of the people. Of course, both those objects are important. 

Now, I have given this bill some thought, and it was my impres- 
sion that if we had the right to legislate on this question and to say 
that food shall not be kept beyond a certain period of time, that 
necessarily Avill force that article of food onto the market ancl give 
the people a chance to buy it. It will prevent hoarding. Now, as to 
the question of whether the food is wholesome after being kept be- 
yond a certain period, of course, that is a question for scientists to 
discuss. 

Mr. Porter. Ought we not to draw this distinction in regard to 
frozen eggs ? Assume that there is a surplus of shell eggs. The price 
is reduced, and there is always a market. But there is only one 
market for frozen eggs, and that is largely made up of the bakeries, 
and the bakeries can only use a certain number of pounds of eggs a 
year, and you could not give them away beyond that. It is just like 
any other article that goes into the cake, or whatever they are manu- 
facturing. There is quite a diiference between an article of this 
kind ancl an ordinary article of consumption. 

Senator Gronna. That is true. 

Mr. Porter. The market never increases by reason of the lowering 
of the price. 

Senator Gronna. That is true, but if we permit these people to 
have a lot of frozen eggs, we take off the market a lot of eggs which 
might be consumed in the shell and in that way enhance the price. 

Mr. Porter. There Avould be nothing to be gained by doing that, 
because the eggs in the shell sell at a very much higher price than 
the frozen eggs. 

Senator Gronna. Supposing we have 100,000,000 dozen eggs and 
we allow these gentlemen who are in this business to take 25,000,000 
dozen eggs and freeze them. Now, that takes 25,000,000 dozen off the 
market. There will be about 75,000.000 dozen left. Of course, that 
w^ill affect the price. 

Mr. Porter. Affect the price of the shell eggs ? 

Senator Gronna. Yes. 

Mr. Porter. But that is no advantage to them. They are selling 
the frozen eggs. 

Senator Gronna. But if by legislation we say that the frozen eggs 
shall be kept only one year, there will not be as large a supply of 
frozen eggs as if we say, " You can keep them as long as you want to, 
or you can keep them two years." 

Mr. Porter. The testimony here seems to indicate that if the limit 
is fixed at one year the foreigners will not be able to come into the 
market, and tliat would necessitate the packing of domestic eggs, 
and freezing them, and that would have the very effect that you in- 
dicate. Pardon me for interrupting you. Dr. Franklin. 

Dr. Franklin. I do not knoAV that I have anything further to say 
about these stocks. It is evident that you have stocl^s on hand now 
that, without breaking any eggs at all, will last until the fall of next 
year. 



u 



A is 



FROZEN E(iGS. 



37 



is only fair to say that this is a commodity that only moves 
.^^o very restricted channels. 

Mr. Raugen. If you limit to 12 months, that will simply shut out 
every egg from China. 

Dr. Franklin. I would not say so. 

Mr. Haugen. Practically so, because we have a suppl3^ and it 
would have to be kept over. 

Dr. Franklin., No. But we have not a domestic supply that 
would be sufficient for our needs, I think, in that class of eggs. I 
will call attention to one very pertinent fact in connection with that. 
Of the eggs that are coming to market, 30 dozen to the case, on an 
average 18^ eggs in each case are checked, cracked, or leakers. That 
is practically a dozen and a half eggs to the 30-dozen case. 

Mr. Halogen. Five per cent. 

Dr. Franklin. And furthermore you have in addition to that a 
certain amount of dirty eggs. Now, that is the breaking stock that 
we have, and was the basis for the beginning of this business. Noav, 
we haA^e not a sufficient quantity of that class of stock to take care 
of our groAving consumption of frozen eggs. That is evidenced b}^ 
the condition here, and is evidenced by the amount of domestic pro- 
duction and domestic consumption, one compared against the other; 
so that for that cheaper commodity it does seem necessary to im- 
port, to bring in stock from outside the United States Avhich does 
not affect in a direct Avay our market on our shell eggs ordinarily. 

Senator Gronna. As 1 understand this chart, Dr. Franklin, the 
people engaged in this business freeze about 15,000,000 or 16,000,000 
pounds here in this coifntry. 

Dr. Franklin. Yes. 

Senator Gronna. And Ave consume on an average probably some 
30.000.000 pounds. I am leaving out the supply on hand just noAv. 

Dr. Franklin. That Avas the approximate consumption for 1920. 

Senator Gronna. But that Avould leaA^e on an average about half, 
or about the same percentage of importation that Ave freeze in this 

country. 

Dr. Franklin. That is if the consumption remains at that high 
point. That, of course, is problematical. 

Mr. Haugen. Have you the figures of production? 

Dr. Franklin. Of shell eggs? 

Mr. Haugen. Altogether. 

Dr. Franklin. No: I haA'e not. I think that is estimated to be 
about 25.000,000,000 dozen. 

Mr. Haugen. About 100,000,000 cases, is it not ? 

Dr. Franklin. That figure is beyond me. T do not knoAv. 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. Doctor, aside from any ques- 
tion of hoarding or any question of supply, Avhat would you say 
Avhen eggs are frozen fresh in good condition is the length of time 
that thev can be kept in that condition and still be entirely Avhole- 
some and useful for food? 

Dr. Franklin. The department has gone on record on that in tAvo 
separate instances, that they are good and Avholesome up to two years. 
Beyond that the department has not made any statement on the 
matter. That is 24 months. 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. You do not knoAV of any iuA-es- 
tigation they haA^e made as to the condition after tAA'o years? 



38 FROZEN EGGS. 

\ 

Dr. Franklin. No ; I do not believe that they have ever made 
investigation on any period beyond that time. In fact, the evidei4^ 
would seem to show that at the end of two years there is beginning 
to be a perceptible breakino- down, due to the albumen changing to a 
watery substance. The point you made a while ago, Congressman 
McLaughlin, that there was a' change going on, is very evident in 
all the "investigations that have been made, that the change starts 
at the time that the egg is laid and it continues, but when the egg is 
placed in cold storage that change is retarded. The bacterial change 
is retarded. 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. When the imported eggs arrive 
here the test is made. Then that stock is placed in cold storage. Are 
there any subsequent tests made in the places where the eggs are 
kept, so as to detect whether or not any have been carried beyond 
the two-j^ear period ? 

Dr. Franklin. No ; there would not be any occasion for it except 
under the State law, where there is a limitation under the State law. 
It would not be necessary by the Federal Government, except that 
they would be examined from time to time to see that they were 
wholesome, under the food and drugs act. 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. The point I was getting at was 
that I was not clear as to whether after you made the initial inspec- 
tion on arrival and they went into cold storage in places owned by 
these gentlemen who are going to use them or sell them, there was 
any subsequent test made as to their age and wholesomeness. 

JDr. Franklin. That work is entirely carried on under the juris- 
diction of the Bureau of Chemistry, and I am quite certain effi- 
ciently so. 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. Let me ask one question so as 
to get this clear in my mind, because it is important to me. These 
eggs are put in storage. They are inspected on arrival and put in 
storage and they are sold from time to time. They are not all sold 
as soon as they come in. They are not shij)ped out. They are kept 
there and disposed of as the market absorbs' them.. Now, do you 
inspect them on sale ? 

Dr. Franklin. No ; we do not inspect them at all, but the inspec- 
tors of the Bureau of Chemistry, under the food and drugs act, and 
the State inspectors do inspect them, but the Bureau of Markets 
does not. 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. On sale ? 

Dr. Franklin. No : they inspect the warehouses from time to time. 

Senator Simith of South Carolina. At stated periods? 

Dr. Franklin. No; not at any stated periods at all. It is a hit- 
and-miss proposition. It is not safe to go at stated periods. 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. The point I am making is, do 
they inspect sufficiently frequently to see that there is no stock car- 
ried beyond the period of wholesomeness? 

Dr. Franklin. Yes ; I would say that that is true. 

Senator (itronna. Where they have a State law? 

Dr. Franklin. Where they have a State law. 

Senator Gronna. Providing for cold storage? 

Dr. Franklin. Yes ; where the State law provides for that sort of 
thing. Not only that, but in States also where the Federal Govern- 
ment can come in under the food and drugs act, and that means any 
stock maving in commerce, of course. 



At 



FROZEN EG(]S. 39 



[r. McLaughlin of Michigan. There is a business of freezing 
^ eggs in this country, the home production, and that breaking and 
freezing is confined largely to eggs that have suffered some little 
damage. 
Dr. Franklin. Physical damage, largely. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Eggs that have deteriorated a 
little, in appearance, and so on, with some measure of deterioration 
in the eggs that are broken and frozen in this countrj^ But that 
business, I understand, is not done b}'' smj gentleman who has testi- 
fied to-night. 

Dr. Franklin. Oh, yes; that business is carried on by some of the 
gentlemen who have testified to-night. They break checked and 
cracked eggs in this country. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. I thought they used onh^ per- 
fect eggs. 

Dr. Franklin. Oh, no ; the breaking stock in this country, as Mr. 
Keith testified, is that class of stock. 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. Doctor, you have no Federal 
law pertaining to the age of this stock? 
Dr. Franklin. No, sir. 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. Are there any State laws that 
pertain to that ? 

Dr. Franklin. Oh, yes. There are several State laws. There is a 
record of them in the hearings of the House committee. 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. This was to unify and make 
uniform the laws in all the States in reference to the age of the cold- 
storage unit, whatever it might be. 

Dr. Franklin. Just so. And in that connection, aside from the 
point under discussion, I would like to call your attention to a letter 
received from the officers who are administering the New York State 
law within the last month, who are contemplating changing their 
law, and say that they do not want to change their law until the 
Federal law is enacted, so that they can build their law to conform 
to it and supplement it. 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. Do you know in what respect 
they desire to change that law ? 

Dr. Franklin. No; I can not say that definitely, because they do 
not say definitely in what respect. But in the present law which 
they have, which was enacted within thel ast year, they followed the 
pending bill in two separate sections, quoted almost verbatim from 
the pending bill, but they changed it in some other form, and they 
are havinof some administrative troubles. They have not confessed 
just what those are. 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. You do not know whether it 
was to lengthen the time or to shorten it? 

Dr. Franklin. I do not think the question of limit was in the 
matter at all. Their limit is placed at 12 months, as per the pend- 
ing bill. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. What, in your opinion, is the best 
manner of describing the kind of product to be included within the 
law, to make it inclusive or exclusive, in these State laws that you 
haA^e examined? 

Dr. Franklin. It is my notion that the States that have stated 
specifically the items of foodstuffs which are controlled under the 
law have had less administrative difficulties than those that have gone 



40 FROZEN EGGS. 

at the definition in a rather indirect approach. Does that ans> ;r 
your question ? 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Yes. 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. As I understood your question ^ 
do you mean to name those that are excluded or those that are in 
eluded ? Which one of the two is the better ? 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Dr. Franklin says he thinks the law 
works best w^hich is inclusive, which names those that are included. 

Dr. Franklin. That is one of the difficulties, as I understood, 
which has arisen in the New York law. They have made an indirect 
approach to their division or distinction of articles of food, and by 
so doing did not exclude some of the things they wanted to, and now 
they are forced to require marking on cereals, breakfast foods, and 
a variety of things of that sort in cold storage which, of course, are 
not contemplated in any law of that kind, but it causes them difficulty 
and is rather embarrassing to administrative officers. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. I am very much pleased to hear 
these gentlemen testify as to the care they take in excluding every- 
thing that can possibly do any harm, every egg that is defective or 
tainted in any way to any degree whatever. In your experience 
do you find that that practice is followed as closely by all those who 
break and freeze eggs as has been described here to-night? 

Dr. Franklin. Your question is quite far-reaching when you say 
" all." I am inclined to believe that if you had the reports of the 
New York State commissioner of markets, just recently issued, he 
would show you several prosecutions within the last year under 
phases of that sort. 

Mr. McLaughlin of Michigan. Prosecutions for what? 

Dr. Franklin. Prosecutions for the placing of deteriorated eggs 
in the frozen product. However, I want to carry that further and 
say that the houses that I have been in and have examined, which 
many of them are houses representing the larger amount of produc- 
tion, are houses that are very careful in how they proceed in their 
breaking processes, and it is true that in these houses they have 
trained their help so that they are exceedingly expert in detecting 
eggs that are not perfectly fresh, and their processes are very like 
those described here by the gentlemen who have testified to-night. 
They have sterlizing devices, and I have seen them used. They 
have ventilation devices for ventilating the room, and in many cases 
the rooms in which the breaking process takes place are refrigerated, 
and the air is clarified and kept pure and under the most wholesome 
condition. That is a development that has grown within the last 
seven or eight years, due to the enforcement of the food and drugs act 
and the inspection of those buildings by the members of the corps in 
the Department of Agriculture who have those things in hand- 
Mr. Porter. I have nothing further. 

Senator Gronna. Are there any questions you wish to ask? 

Senator Smith of South Carolina. No. 

Senator Gronna. We are very much obliged to you. 

Mr. Porter. That is all we have to present. We appreciate the 
kindness of the conferees in hearing us at this late hour. 

Senator Gronna. Then we will adjourn. 

(Whereupon, at 10.35 o'clock p. m., the joint committee adjourned 
to meet at the call of the chairman.) 
X 



